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Truth Advances in Britain
149
to exhort the people to obedience of its precepts, since those whom
God had elected to salvation would “be led to the practice of piety
and virtue” while those doomed to eternal reprobation “did not have
power to obey the divine law.”
Others, holding that “the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit
the divine favor,” arrived at the hideous conclusion that “the wicked
actions they commit are not really sinful, ... and that, consequently,
they have no occasion either to confess their sins or to break them
[163]
off by repentance.
Therefore, they declared, even one of the vilest
of sins “considered universally an enormous violation of the divine
law is not a sin in the sight of God” if committed by one of the
elect. “They cannot do anything that is either displeasing to God or
prohibited by the law.”
These monstrous doctrines are essentially the same as the later
teaching that there is no unchangeable divine law as the standard of
right, but that morality is indicated by society itself and constantly
subject to change. All these ideas are inspired by him who among
the sinless inhabitants of heaven began his work to break down the
righteous restraints of the law of God.
The doctrine of divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character of
men, had led many to rejection of the law of God. Wesley steadfastly
opposed this doctrine which led to antinomianism. “The grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” “God our
Saviour ... will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a
ransom for all.” Christ, “the true Light, ... lighteth every man that
cometh into the world.”
Titus 2:11
;
1 Timothy 2:3-6
;
John 1:9
. Men
fail of salvation through their own wilful refusal of the gift of life.
In Defense of the Law of God
In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the Decalogue
had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley said: “The
moral law, contained in the Ten Commandments and enforced by
the prophets, He did not take away. This is a law which never can
be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven.’”
13
McClintock & Strong, Cyclopedia, art. “Antinomians.”